Today Barbara Solem-Stull (author of the Quirky Places book), Ariadne (professional archaeologist and friendly person), Tom Gagliardi (has a radio show on BCC Radio) and myself (me) went out to visit Mary Ann Forge.
We met at the Lebanon Ranger Station and first headed out to see Jeff's (Woodjin) "substantial ruins." Ariadne placed the ruins as being from the late 1800s from the style of poured concrete. We also walked back to the odd cement base with the two troughs, the parallel concrete foundation walls, and odd trough. I had a hunch that it was a steam powered saw mill, with the engine being mounted on the concrete slab, and a belt driven mechanisim running a big saw blade mounted in the trough. It seems like this is the most likely scenario for how the sawmill at Mary Ann operated.
We then visited the town site of Mary Ann. Nothing much to report on. There is an amazing amount of slag down by the bridge ruins. It turns out that pig iron was floated down from Hanover on barges.
Barbara had to leave around 1:30, so we drove her back to her car and then had lunch at the Four Mile Tavern. This was my first time there. I like the place. I am always a fan of places with beer. The bartender got her watch at the Fossil outlet for $20. It was nice.
We then made a quick stop over to the site of Boyd's Tavern. Nothing much to see there. The ranges at the fort were really active today - lots of guns being fired and whatnot.
All in all a very cool day with a bunch of cool people!
We met at the Lebanon Ranger Station and first headed out to see Jeff's (Woodjin) "substantial ruins." Ariadne placed the ruins as being from the late 1800s from the style of poured concrete. We also walked back to the odd cement base with the two troughs, the parallel concrete foundation walls, and odd trough. I had a hunch that it was a steam powered saw mill, with the engine being mounted on the concrete slab, and a belt driven mechanisim running a big saw blade mounted in the trough. It seems like this is the most likely scenario for how the sawmill at Mary Ann operated.
We then visited the town site of Mary Ann. Nothing much to report on. There is an amazing amount of slag down by the bridge ruins. It turns out that pig iron was floated down from Hanover on barges.
Barbara had to leave around 1:30, so we drove her back to her car and then had lunch at the Four Mile Tavern. This was my first time there. I like the place. I am always a fan of places with beer. The bartender got her watch at the Fossil outlet for $20. It was nice.
We then made a quick stop over to the site of Boyd's Tavern. Nothing much to see there. The ranges at the fort were really active today - lots of guns being fired and whatnot.
All in all a very cool day with a bunch of cool people!
